Plays On Word Radio
An in-depth look at the Word of God, the Plays On Word community, and the Plays - with original music - we perform, that are based on the Word of God. New episodes drop Fridays at 7AM EST! To find out how Plays On Word Theater can perform 'LIVE on YOUR STAGE' and to support this missionary & podcast visit: https://playsonword.org/
Plays On Word Radio
Ep 143: From Stage to Scripture (Part 1) - How a One-Man Play Brought Peter’s Story to Life and Stirred a Church
"What happens when theater brings living Scripture for a room that spans toddlers to octogenarians? Today, we sit down with Pastor Steve Reynolds of Capital Baptist & find out."
A boy named Zadok hands over his loaves and fish, a row of 7 kids leans forward, & a sanctuary stays rapt for two hours—this is the kind of night we live for! We invited Pastor Steve from Capitol Baptist to unpack what happened when our one-man play “PETE” met a church already gearing up to teach through Peter’s life. Pastor Steve Reynolds shares why the performance felt alive — from facial expressions that carry meaning, to pacing that keeps kids present, to music that sends adults back to the Gospels. Next, you’ll hear how “PETE” was written in less than 3 weeks after a prayerful nudge, why we joke that “AI” really means Almighty Intelligence, & how a child in the audience raised a hand to accept Jesus. Pastor Steve opens up about his own journey: saved young through a mother’s witness & a long revival, called into vocational ministry, & led to plant a church in Northern Virginia by praying over stacks of city packets. Along the way, we reflect on seasons of theater ministry, the grit of church planting, & the little production choices —light, sound, sightlines— that communicate care. The conversation widens with his recent trip to Nigeria. Joy over 4-hour worship services & bold preaching lives alongside grief over increasing persecution — reports suggest around thirty Christians are killed daily in the north. We talk honestly about the difference between scrolling past headlines & committing to pray, & we ask for more than protection: we ask for conversion, the kind that turned Saul into Paul. If you’ve been hungry to see Scripture with fresh eyes, to remember why excellence in the arts serves the church, & to let prayer shape action, this one’s for you.
Pastor Steve Reynolds, Lead Pastor: Capital Baptist (website) • Capital Baptist (Facebook) • https://pastorstevereynolds.com/ Pastor Steve's Books: • Bod4God • Get Off The Couch • Taking God To Work • The Healthy Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Health and Wellness • Wise Up!
Plays On Word website
Plays On Word YouTube
Plays On Word Facebook
Plays On Word Instagram
Email us: team@playsonword.org
Uh Rabbi Steve, or I should say, Pastor Steve. We're rolling.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Yeah. You're going to edit it, right? Yes, sir. I didn't know what was going on. It's all good. Okay, let's do it. Lord, you know. You will now listen to the play.
SPEAKER_01:It's the best.
SPEAKER_02:All week long. I believe it was August 16th, 1968 right now. That preacher preached the gospel, and I mean that was a research conviction walking away. So I'm not aware that you know, you know, and I'll see you after the line.
SPEAKER_00:Hello, and welcome to Plays on the World, where we discuss analyzed work and play on the word of God. Thank you for joining us on this experience today. Let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Keddy Jr., the founder of Plays on the Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.
SPEAKER_03:Rabbi, uh, we call him Rabbi Steve from Capitol Baptist Church in uh I want to say D.C., but it was the town. Annondale Virginia.
SPEAKER_02:Northern Virginia, Fairfax County. Amen. Uh, bedroom community for uh Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_03:Amen, amen. And we just did our Pete play uh for you. Off top of your head, um any thoughts about what you just saw or what you just experienced?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, it was absolutely incredible, and I'm so thankful for the body of Christ and all the parts to it, and the skills, and the passions, and the gifts that he gives us. And uh, and Fred, you you definitely have a special ability from God to be able to keep uh the attention of everyone from I don't know who the oldest person was, okay, down to the little children uh for two hours. There was some. There was a whole row of kids. That was one family, by the way. They have seven kids. And they were in the second row of the church, and you kept their attention pretty much the whole time. But I was definitely, definitely touched by, you know, the scenes and you made things in the Bible come a lot, you know, with with your you know, your acting and portrayal and your voice and your your facial features are are incredible the way you use your face to communicate. It was just powerful. Okay, powerful.
SPEAKER_03:I tell you, well, you know what got me was that when Jesus feeds the 5,000, usually in that scene, I I see if I find a a young boy that's in the crowd. Right. And I tell you the Lord directs me to the right person every time. We went this time, we went to a kid, and I say, I usually ask the kid, what's your name? He said, My name is Zadok. And I went, What? Are you kidding me? Really? I was actually at a loss for words. I didn't know, I was like, I can't believe it. Zadok. You just said it was great. You can't make it up, man.
SPEAKER_02:I think they all have biblical names. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And they were they were locked into the plate the whole time.
SPEAKER_02:They were, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:It was and you asked me beforehand, you said, Well, what's the age range? Yeah, yeah. I said, Man, I think from two to to eighty to ninety-two.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, yep, absolutely. Maybe 102. I believe you, yeah, I believe you, yeah. So so it was really great. We're uh I feel like God put this together because I'm starting a series on Peter, and uh and a lady who knows you all, her name's uh Jackie Cole. Jackie Cole. And Jackie, if you're listening, I want to once again thank you. And all of us here can be used of God to spread the word about plays on word because of Jackie. I she heard me speak somewhere else, and her I mentioned I was gonna do a series this fall on Peter, and she came and told me about Pete. And uh, so I'm so glad it worked out that y'all could come and be with us uh today.
SPEAKER_03:Amen. And uh it was just a joy, and it's always a blessing when when someone is a church or a pastor is teaching through a section that we deal with in the plays. We had a pastor that was just finishing Genesis, and he asked us to come out and do our Genesis Joe play to kind of cap off his or to to put the exclamation point on his teaching. Yeah, that way we uh we work well with so he did the opposite way.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, so it works either way, either way, man.
SPEAKER_03:So I'm looking forward to seeing your your message about Peter and the boats and stuff, because I saw some stuff you were working on a while ago. And it was very interesting. I'm like, wow, I'm gonna bring my notebook.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, yeah. Maybe we'll make some adjustments to the plane. Or the other way around. You might help me make some adjustments.
SPEAKER_03:Did anything like stick out that the Lord really spoke to you about? Or you know, did anything jump out of the plane? Maybe the woman uh bleeding for 12 years or the walking on water or whatever.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I think the way you made the uh the uh healings and the raising from the dead, yeah, uh you made some of that stuff really come alive. You know, that's things I've really you know thought that much about. So it was really, really significant. But the way it ends is just unbelievable. Just the climax at the end, and and then you know, the songs. Wow. Yes, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Praise God.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, God did a great job. Yeah, songs are just powerful and they're unique and different, and and uh you get you know, people left here today excited about the Lord. Amen. That's the key. And about Peter. So yeah, so that's the point. Yeah, that's the point. Amen. That's the point.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, if we if people get their noses in the book, you know, we've had people say that they they were excited to go back and read. Yes, yes. I want to go. We had one girl, she was a student. You want to tell a story? No, no, go ahead. At a Christian school, we did, we did a Christian school uh like five years ago, and she came up to us and she said, you know, I never liked really liked Peter and never liked him, and now I'm really looking forward to to going back. I actually, wow, I'm gonna go back and read about him.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that'd be great.
SPEAKER_03:Because I didn't give him a fair shake, basically. She was stuff like that.
SPEAKER_02:So sure, sure, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so yeah, that's uh and for us, that's such a blessing. That's like for everything else.
SPEAKER_02:So let us reverse the interview. So why were you drawn to doing Pete?
SPEAKER_03:Ah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um it's a funny story. You've told the audience before. That's okay. It's okay.
SPEAKER_03:Repetition is good. Yeah, we were we were doing our Genesis Joe play. Okay, and we did our Genesis Joe play at this uh one church in New Jersey, and the assistant pastor is a friend of mine, and he was really excited about Genesis Joe. And while I was setting up for Genesis Joe, I told him, I said, Yeah, man, the Lord's putting something about Peter on my heart. I don't know. I just he started putting something about Peter, and I didn't have anything, but I just felt like something about Peter. And I just mentioned that to him.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_03:And this was in February, and Easter was early that year, it was like the end of March. And um, this was in February, we were at his church doing the play, and he called me up a few weeks later and said, Hey man, um, we want you to come do that Pete play on our Passion Week. And I was like, What P play? I don't know, I don't have a Pete play.
SPEAKER_02:What are you talking about, man?
SPEAKER_03:I said, The Lord's putting something about Peter on my heart, but I don't have a play. And he said, Well, you'll figure it out, or something like that. And I was like, Oh, so I went in prayer. I said, Lord, um, they they want me to do a P play, a Peter play. Right. Is that what you're giving me? If so, you need to give it to me soon because I've got three weeks. Right. And he put the whole thing together in less than three weeks. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:That's great.
SPEAKER_03:And so what you see today is uh is really not much change. There are some tweaks that we've made. It runs better than when we first did it.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_03:But the 98% of the play is the same way he gave it to us over ten years ago. There are a couple things like the AI that wasn't around back then. Right, right. You know what I mean? So but what's the AI?
SPEAKER_02:So AI distancing.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, social distancing, right? We added that after COVID. You know, the woman who's not who's not supposed to touch anybody, and she's supposed to social distance.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, that was a good thing.
SPEAKER_03:People get that.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:If I did that six years ago, nobody would have understood that. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. That's not funny.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, what is AI?
SPEAKER_03:A AI. So people started laughing, and um they're like, you know, AI, and they they automatically think artificial intelligence, and I let it hang out there, and then I pause and I say, no, no, no, no. Almighty intelligence.
SPEAKER_02:You know, we want the mind of Christ. We definitely need to hear this in DC.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, yes. We need almighty intelligence. I use AI for everything. Everything I do in ministry and life, I use AI.
SPEAKER_02:Look out for the t-shirt.
SPEAKER_03:It's Almighty intelligence, the mind of Christ. Let this mind be in you.
SPEAKER_02:Amen.
SPEAKER_03:So that's the idea with that. And yeah, the t-shirts will be available at some point.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, okay. Um, you go back to interviewing me, so yes.
SPEAKER_03:So, how did you how did you come to meet Jesus? Tell me about before we get into these books you wrote. I heard they gave us an update. Jackie gave us an update.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, well, I I was fortunate enough to get saved as a child. Yeah, so I was 10 years old, so I grew grew up in a Christian home, and uh and um, and so basically it was kind of a through kind of three things came together. One, my mother, I remember sitting at 6,000 Edgewood Avenue in Lynchburg, Virginia, okay on the back porch, and I vividly remember my w my mother giving me the gospel, but I didn't accept Christ. I don't know if she asked me to. I don't know what happened, okay, but I just remember her giving me the gospel. And then uh in my mind, is a short time, like two or three weeks after that, I went to vacation Bible school at New Hope Baptist Church in Appomattox, Virginia, and uh where the Civil War ended, yeah, uh, Appomattox, and uh and God continued to plant that seed in me at VBS. So give it up for VBS, vacation Bible school. Amen. But I didn't accept Christ, okay. But shortly after that, okay, I would go and spend two or three weeks in the summer with my grandmother. And uh I was free, it was a bunch of us kids were free labor on the farm. Okay, so we'd bail hay and do all this terrible stuff. And um, but we would also went to they every summer they had a revival. They call it revival, it was all week long, okay. May I emphasize all week long. Okay. And when and uh and and I believe it was Thursday night, I believe it was August 16th, 1968, right around that time. Uh that preacher preached the gospel, and uh, I mean, I was under such conviction, and I actually walked the aisle, old-fashioned, walked the aisle and accepted Christ. So I'm thankful that you know I was able to get saved as a child, you know, and uh that's the greatest mission feels. We don't think about it. Most people come to Christ as children, and you know, if you want to win people to Christ, you know, yeah, work on the adults and the teenagers, but the the action is really with the kids. If you really want to win people to Jesus.
SPEAKER_03:So that's so you've been walking with the Lord for over 50 years.
SPEAKER_02:Uh oh, yeah. That's fantastic.
SPEAKER_03:And you know, as a child, I have an appreciation for making sure I share the gospel. That's why I share the gospel at these plays. And there was a kid that was there tonight, and he raised his hand. He prayed that prayer. And I just I you know, I it's hard to see with the lights on everyone. I saw this was a younger kid, and uh maybe eight or nine or ten, and he raised his hand, and that just blessed me. I said, Lord, I just you know, be with him his whole life.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. That's right. Sink it in. Yeah, sooner the better, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_03:So that happened to you.
SPEAKER_02:That's what happened to me.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, praise God, man. Yeah, and you've been how long you've been serving God?
SPEAKER_02:What when did you how'd you make the transition to like I need to serve God, not just all about well, um sadly, I did have my ups and downs as a teenager, but uh, you know, uh I was uh you know, I was bold for Christ at times. One time I actually stood up in a locker room of our football team and basically the gospel. Oh man. But I don't want to tell you what I was doing the next day. We're not gonna put that on record or but uh but you know, but I you know, so basically I I had opportunity to uh I wasn't the greatest football player, but had opportunity to play, got about half a dozen scholarship offers and to small schools, but not big schools. And um and I didn't really want to go to Liberty Univers which is university now. Uh you know, I I just w was looking at these others, but my parents said, you know, would you honor us and and and go for a year? And and I and I did uh respect my parents and I did that. And God just changed my life. Radically. Yeah, yeah. I went there thinking I'd gonna go into business or coaching, and by the second semester of uh my first year of college, I was February 20th, 1977. I was walking the aisle of Thomas Rowe Baptist Church, and I took the hand of my pastor, Jerry Falwell, and submitted myself to full-time uh full-time church ministry. Well, we're all full-time in ministry, okay? But full-time uh vocational church ministry.
SPEAKER_03:And so a lot of good has come out of Liberty, man. Yeah, some a bunch of the graduates we're actually gonna be in Lynchburg nah not next week, the weekend. No.
SPEAKER_02:Why?
SPEAKER_03:Two weeks we'll be in Lynchburg. I I'm going to we're we're going to conference. They're in in Lynchburg right there. Where it and I love it because it's it's it is Liberty University, it's Liberty University. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. The conference is at Liberty.
SPEAKER_03:It's it's not at Liberty, it's um it is down the street, but you can see up on the hill where the the Liberty University. So we're really excited about it. Nice, nice. Um that's fantastic, man.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_03:That is such a blessing. So, how did you end up here?
SPEAKER_02:Uh well, so you know, when you there's a lot of different ways you can serve the local church. Okay. So for a time I actually thought I was gonna be a missionary to Mexico City.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:And I I I felt I I felt like God wanted to know if I was willing to go. Okay, and I was. Uh I actually changed my major. Uh, but slowly but surely he started putting on my heart to be a church planner in the United States. So I started, you know, seeking the Lord. Actually, I wrote I felt it was gonna be a larger city, and there was no computers back then. So I actually wrote like 50 chamber of commerces throughout the country, big cities. Okay. And I got their packets and I put them on a table, large table, kind of like what we're sitting at now, and I would w study them and pray over them and read them, and just I felt like God led me here to to uh northern Virginia.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, so wow, that that's fantastic. That's some Gideon stuff right there. Like, let me make this out, Lord. Uh you show me where you go. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so I actually came here with a team. Okay, uh small team of we didn't know anybody, just total church plant. I have a feeling starting from scratch, yeah. And uh, but uh Pastor Bob Age, who's who was here tonight, he he was he's he was been with me. We've been together for 43 years.
SPEAKER_03:Oh wow, yeah. Praise God.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Was he blessed? Did he like the play?
SPEAKER_02:I'm sure he did. He he's uh he's a play man. He okay. He we used we did a passion play for about a decade. Oh had over 30,000 people come to it. Some of them were repeats, not necessarily, but the total attendance, because we we would do it for two weeks. Okay, and we'd literally pack the place up. And uh and then he put on a lot of other plays, but that's easy.
SPEAKER_03:Your setup here is perfect.
SPEAKER_02:It is, it is good, like the lights, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And I was like, this is this is real deal. This is real.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. But uh, but now the main thing we do is through our homeschool co-op. They put on some big plates, yeah. But in the church, we haven't been having uh have haven't done it for years. I mean, Jesus got really old and and uh He wasn't 33. Yeah, John Yeah, John died, uh worstly. You're doing polycops. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. So so over time, it was just it was a great season in our church, and we just feel like God had it for a season. Yeah, and that's not what we're doing very much now. So we just recently So it was refreshing to have you here. Amen. Because we've used you know uh plays to minister, but it's been a while, so it worked out great.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we uh we just recently did a homeschool event where a bunch of the um a bunch of the homeschoolers they had they came out to the play we did at the church on Saturday night, and then they were having a their their drama club meeting or something. Uh was it drama club or I forget what class it was, but they asked us to come and speak and they're doing a play. They're doing a play, they're doing Shakespeare.
SPEAKER_02:But but he yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. I we were gonna if we were to advertise it because it's 700 in the co-op, so it's 700 kids. But an auditorium, I didn't I mean we can hold about 450, but people could sit on the sides, they they complain because it's hard to see. So we you you I didn't want to go crazy. I mean that's okay.
SPEAKER_03:We can come back if you have a lot of it.
SPEAKER_02:It was a nice crowd. It was a good crowd, and they all had a good seat. Everybody had a good seat, exactly. Yeah, because you get on those sides, it's really hard hard to see.
SPEAKER_03:You know, I I try to make sure that everybody can see the facial expressions.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Um, and I've been in some really wide stages or narrow stages. Yeah, yeah, yeah. God has blessed me with the ability to uh at least try to cater to everybody so everybody can see the Bible talks about the countenance of our face and how important it is. So you saw how important it is in the play.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, you're amazing.
SPEAKER_03:But it's gotta, you know, it's amazing to be able a lot of the scenes happen, yeah, you know, yeah, just changing of the face.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, yep, yep.
SPEAKER_03:So um we wanted to talk also, we were talking before we started. Um you mentioned that um in Nigeria right now there are at least 30 Christians a day.
SPEAKER_02:A day, yeah. Being killed. That's right, yeah. Yeah, so so I so I recently had an opportunity to go to Nigeria, and and um, and so uh and my son-in-law is from Nigeria. Okay. So I went I went there for a wedding. Uh his sister got married, and we've been wanting to go because we we love their family very much. They come here once, twice a year, okay, and we communicate with uh FaceTime and all that good stuff. So we're we're very close to them. And so we wanted to go and uh we had a great time.
SPEAKER_03:What was it like over there?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mean, we were we were in Abuja, which is like the capital. That's the they're Washington, D.C. Okay. So it was it was you know you know, relatively nice. I mean, uh uh Was it hot and cold? Um I'll be honest with you, I was stunned. I came prepared for hot and mosquitoes and didn't see one mosquito, and I think it was more comfortable uh there than here. I mean it was just it was un I I mean I could not believe it. It was it was crazy. Uh I just we just hit it perfectly, I guess. So but yeah, but in the northern I mean so that uh overall the Christians and the Muslims were fact fact on one side of the highway there's a big Muslim mock uh uh mosque, and on the other side of the highway is a they call I think they call it the Christian Center Church or something, something like that, but it's a big church. Okay, and uh and I mean lots and lots of Christians here. I mean, I mean I we had a wonderful time. We went to a it's a Methodist church and it was four hours long, the church service. They received five offerings.
SPEAKER_03:Oh they're not playing, they're not playing, okay.
SPEAKER_02:And the preacher, man, he preached it basically was uh I call it make heaven crowded sermon. It was he that wins souls is wise. It was a oh it was a great sermon. A lot of Christians there, okay. But unfortunately, particularly in the north, that's that's where it's it's I mean the many martyrs for Christ, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're more the um I what do you I feel what were they used from the extreme Muslims or I I don't know. They don't but in the Abuja this town, uh they're mainly just you know peace, peaceful peop people and get along. So yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So so the people listening to this right now, if anybody thinks that they or has trouble not knowing what to pray for, yes, they can you guys can pray right now for for the Christians in Nigeria because your brothers and sisters in Christ, many of them are literally running for their lives right now. Like they're under threat of death. Yes for Christ.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Like that is something foreign to the American Christian mind.
SPEAKER_02:That's right.
SPEAKER_03:That's something that's always over there or away. Right. Something you see on the internet, but it's never right outside your door.
SPEAKER_02:And uh I know one article I just recently read says 30 a day. 30 a day time for Jesus. So yeah, 30 a day. So uh it's a it's considered it's number one now, because all these groups that keep up with that stuff they say is number one for persecution. So just let that sink in. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So to be a to be a I mean, we uh we can pray that our brothers and sisters would stand strong and that God would give opportunity and soften the hearts of these people that are persecuting them and save their souls. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you know, that's something that I've prayed for many years that you know, not just that the Lord would deliver our Christian brothers, but Lord, let's let me let me turn the artillery towards the persecutors and that ask that the Lord would save their soul. Yes, because you know, the Lord can do that.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, he can. Amen.
SPEAKER_03:You know, and uh he has done it. Yes. Uh look at Saul Tarsus.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Prime example. Maybe the prime example. Yes, absolutely. So he can do it, but I think he's calling us to be at least be people of prayer and not be preoccupied with Netflix and a whole bunch of other stuff and things that distract us from, you know, there's a real need for Christians to to fire artillery of prayer. Amen. So that's my third point. We're commanded. Yeah, we are commanded.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's not even an option.
SPEAKER_03:It's not even like if you want, no, when you pray. Mm-hmm. Right. You know, so we're supposed to do that.
SPEAKER_00:This program was made possible by the Plays on the Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at plays on Word.org.
